Two cars covered in thousands of twinkling lights are bringing festive joy to the streets of Southampton.
Danny Klopper, first had the idea so he could put a smile on people's faces when he was a Domino's Pizza delivery driver during the pandemic.
The 46-year-old's wife Ashley, 47, joined in last year, transforming her Honda CR-V with 3,000 green lights into the 'Grinch Wagon', complete with themed headrests.
This joined Danny's Audi A4, which is adorned with 5,000 multi-coloured lights and took up to a day to do.
READ MORE: easyJet to launch Southampton Airport flights to Majorca
Speaking to the Echo, Ashley from Redbridge Towers said: “We’ve had such brilliant feedback, you can see that kids love it.
"When we’re driving along you can see people taking pictures as we go past and giving us a thumbs up and tooting their horn."
The lights are powered by the car's battery via a £100 inverter inside each vehicle.
Ashley explained that the cars are totally roadworthy in their current festive state; they would only be illegal if they were flashing lights.
She said: “It’s a family affair, my eldest son Sam, will help us decorate the car and I take my youngest son, Dean, 11, to school in the dark mornings and he has the honour of switching the lights on!”
“The lights can sometimes take a whole day to put up as there’s thousands of them but it’s all worth it in the end.”
Last year, the couple used their eye-catching vehicles to raise money for Autism Hampshire, a cause close to their heart as their 17-year-old son Reece is autistic.Members of the family’s Facebook group – Christmas car’s pictures, posts and updates – encouraged the couple to this year raise money for Cancer Research UK.
Ashley said: “It’s a charity that’s close to our heart.
“My aunt died recently, and she had undiagnosed lung cancer.
“Danny’s mum died 17 years ago of cancer, and we’ve had friends who’ve been affected too.”
The family’s Just Giving page has already raised £100 for the cancer charity, which can be found on their Facebook page.
The husband and wife duo also plan to print off flyers that will be displayed in their car windows as they drive around the city.
“We want to bring cheer, everyone is going through something”, said Ashley.
Next year, they plan to make their festive campaign even bigger and better.
Ashley said: “Even if it puts a smile on someone’s face for five minutes, we’d be over the moon because life can be tough sometimes.
“The grandson of one of my friends saw my car and said ‘Nan, can you buy me that car?’"
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel